Please give a warm welcome to my guest today, Khanh, author of Flesh.

The Great American Novel

Today I read a fellow author’s post on this subject. She wondered if the desire to write ‘The Great American Novel’ has been superseded by the desire to write the next million-dollar bestseller. She asked, ‘Is Anyone Really Writing the Great American Novel?’
 
What makes a novel great? Frankly, a novel can be set in any locale, real, or imaginary like the Yoknapatawpha County from which William Faulkner created his fictional worlds. Even more frankly, to be great a novel has to be literary. I never know any great novels in the genre of Sci-Fi, Romance, YA, or that sort. Do you? Why literary? 
 
Because literary fiction deals with characterization more deeply, more intensely. Not to mention the power of its descriptions of moods, scenes, and human characterization. Don’t yawn! Read The Sound and The Fury, especially the first two chapters on Benjy and Quentin, where human minds verging on insanity were skillfully wrought to the point of surrealism. Read Paris Trout by Pete Dexter. I don’t know about you but I felt a tingling in my spine just following this Trout character around. If you’re taken over by such a villain in a novel, like Trout, or Lester Ballard in Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God, then that novel must be literary.
 
But I don’t think any writer would intend to write ‘The Great American Novel’ when he conceives the thought of writing. Any writer who says ‘I want to write the great such and such novel’ is illusionary. A novel that can successfully examine human flaws and humiliation and racial bigotry usually transcends any locale it’s set in and becomes a global recognition in the literary world. It could be set in Pago-Pago as in Rain by W. Somerset Maugham, or in a small Cajun community in Louisiana as in A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, but these works rise above their locales to become classics.
But don’t concern yourself with such a lofty ambition to write ‘The Great American Novel.’ Every day when you sit down to write, try to stay true to yourself.
 
Also keep this verity in mind: ‘Most live writers do not exist. Their fame is created by critics who always need a genius of the season, someone they understand completely and feel safe in praising, but when these fabricated geniuses are dead they will not exist.’— Ernest Hemingway
 

And if you still obsess about writing a classic, be merciless on yourself as if you have just been told by a demon: ‘I have to write to be happy whether I get paid for it or not. But it is a hell of a disease to be born with. I like to do it. Which is even worse. That makes it from a disease into a vice. Then I want to do it better than anybody has ever done it which makes it into an obsession. An obsession is terrible. Hope you haven’t got any. That’s the only one I’ve got left.’— Ernest Hemingway

 

 
So, do I want to write ‘The Great American Novel?’ No. Just write!
 
Thanks Khanh! Please be sure to read my review of Flesh, also posted today!

About Khanh Ha:

Khanh Ha was born in Hue, the former capital of Vietnam.  During his teen years he began writing short stories which won him several awards in the Vietnamese adolescent magazines.  He graduated from Ohio University with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism.  He is at work on a new novel.


Now for the giveaway!  Khanh has agreed to offer one lucky winner a print copy of his book.  This giveaway is open to Canada and the U.S. and will end on February 7, 2013.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

 

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Follow the Tour:
 
So Many Precious Books Jan 7 Interview & Giveaway
Eclectic Books & Movies  Jan 8 Review
Eclectic Books & Movies  Jan 9 Interview
She Treads Softly  Jan 10 Review
Book Lover Stop  Jan 11 Guest Post & Giveaway
Broken Teepee Jan 14 Review
MK McClintock  Jan 15 Interview
Joy Story  Jan 16 Review
From L.A. to LA  Jan 17 Review
Books à la Mode Jan 17 Guest Post & Giveaway
A Book Lover’s Library Jan 22 Review
A Book Lover’s Library Jan 23 Interview & Giveaway
Relentless Reader  Jan 23 Review
Joy Story Jan 25 Guest Post
The Wormhole  Jan 25 Interview
Sweeps 4 Bloggers  Jan 25 Review & Giveaway
Ordinary Girlz Reviews  Jan 28 Review & Giveaway
Cuzinlogic Jan 29 Interview & Giveaway
Belle of the Literati Jan 30 Review
Overflowing Bookshelves  Feb 1  Review
Overflowing Bookshelves   Feb 4 Interview
Gina’s Library  Feb 4 Spotlight/Giveaway
Crossroads  Feb 5 Review
Broken Teepee  Feb 5 Guest post & Giveaway
So Many Precious Books   Feb 6 Review
Book Bird Dog  Feb 6 Guest Post

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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.